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The EU austerians' hope is that our economy will act like such a powerful tow truck that it will be able to overcome the "fiscal drag" of austerity on the Eurozone's economy. This is a significantly insane idea.

There are many that won't entertain the U.S. being vulnerable to a mass sell-off in U.S. treasuries but then I doubt that four years ago, Berlusconi, Papandreou, Socrates, Cowen and Kiviniemi would have signed up to that notion either.

One sentence in a recent article in the Economist, on Britain's relationship with the EU, really alarmed me: A "senior Labour figure" saying, "Whatever our position on Europe, we cannot be seen as an anti referendum party." If Labour adheres to that line, the UK could be out of the EU by 2016.

The road-map is there. The road remains arduous, full of ambushes and challenging.
During that journey, the Euro will remain as the anchor of European economic integration and Greece will be part of the trip.

The eurozone will not break up. The price of departure is simply too great for any one country. Indeed, when Mario Draghi announced on 6 September that the European Central Bank would undertake unlimited purchases of government bonds, the continent crossed the bridge to its future.

Austerity has made it difficult for Greece to meet its fiscal targets, as well as its structural reforms. This is why anything short of debt forgiveness and more bailout funds is only a way for Europe to buy a little bit of time but at a huge price.

Symbolically, the Oslo ceremonies are an historical turning point for Europe. By recognizing the European Union's peacemaking past, the Nobel Prize challenges Europe to escape once and for all the destructive pull of narrow national interests and passions.

David Cameron suggested the European Union headquarters in Brussels "continues to exist as if in a parallel universe," in part because its idea of austerity is to increase the workweek from 37.5 hours to 40. How can we possibly make sense of all this?

No one is forcing us to follow the dictates of our own homegrown versions of Merkel, although there are plenty of them around, including in Congress, who are as adamant, powerful and potentially obstructive as she is.

While serious questions remain over the cost of obtaining money for Ireland when that moment arrives, the sheer fact that Ireland can now talk about leaving behind its official lenders is highly significant, and not just in Ireland, but further afield.